Fantasy Success and Failure

If you know me, you already know this: I'm more than a little bit competitive. I'm also an unabashed football fan.

So this year, for the first time, I played fantasy football. Two leagues: fantasy and pro-pick 'em. In my fantasy league, I went 12-2 in the regular season and made it to the championship game... and then I lost.
Because Adam Vinatieri only got the chance to kick one field goal and one PAT for the Colts' anemic backup offense.

In the pro-pick 'em league, I won after leading for more than half the season.

It's going to be tough to match this performance next year -- after all, it's mostly just dumb luck. Nonetheless, I just had to take the opportunity to gloat a little. It's my blog, so I'll gloat if I want to.

More Nervous Than the Players?

I am more nervous than the actual players are. I am even more nervous than Sarah was before Game 5 of this year's ALCS. And that's saying something. I bring you... my boys:

Don't fail us now. Patriots Nation requires that Peyton, and his I'm-on-tv-every-five-minute-smugness be silenced. Here's a sample:

More of that would be good.

Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything

Tom Brady is younger than I am. He's probably too young to have a biography written about him, so let's just call Charles Pierce's new book a "profile" rather than a biography. I just finished it and highly recommend it. It really is like reading a long magazine article about Brady and provides a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at last year's season and at all the things that make Tom tick. It's a quick read with lots of good memories of better times in Patriots-land and the distinct hope that the team will rise again once Tom can find a teammate to catch his passes. Not that the 2005 season was necessarily better times, but the book leaps back in time to many prior moments of glory. I probably shouldn't be so negative about this season yet. I know we're still in it... the season's not over and we're playoff-bound, but this is probably not the year for reasons that were well explained in today's Globe article. And this just in: Brady didn't even make the Pro Bowl this year. If this snub makes you sad (and I dedicate this post to you, Fibby) read Pierce's book and feel warm and fuzzy inside.